that was increasingly difficult when his mind kept turning to Tamzin and the way she moved, her curvy figure, and what she would look like naked.
And all too soon he was going to get his wish. They were docking at the space station, where they would disembark and go through the decon’. Naked. He struggled to deal with his obsession for her; they had only spoken a handful of words to each other, and his lack of control was out of character.
“I’ll go ahead, and leave you to bring Tamzin,” Okil said, opening the hatch onto the space station. “Explain it to her, Garth, this is all so new, so sudden, and she will be frightened.”
“Very well,” Garth said, heading out of the control room to where Tamzin was looking out of the window, staring out into space.
“I never expected it to be so big,” she said. “I always thought the deserts were big, stretching on endlessly, but space is never-ending, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know, although if there is an end, the Karal have never found it.” He sat down in the seat next to hers. “We have to go aboard the space station. Before you go to Karal, you have to go through the decon’.”
“What’s that?” She momentarily shifted her gaze to look at his face, staring at his features, and his colours flowed across his skin unchecked.
Tamzin lifted her hand to his cheek and stroked his skin, sending his body into some kind of ecstasy. Garth jolted back, as if she had struck him, his hands now covered in waves of blue and green as if a storm was circling his body, the sensations like the swell on the ocean.
“Decontamination. It will take all the impurities from Earth out of your system. We cannot risk anything contaminating our planet.” But something had already contaminated it. Had contaminated him.
“Does it hurt?” she asked. “Because I’m certain I’m full of contaminated stuff.” She held out her hand and showed him where the acid had burned her skin.
“It will heal. Once we are on Karal, I’ll get the doctor to look at you. He deals with the humans all the time and is sure to have some salve that will help.”
She smiled at him, but there was still a sadness in her eyes, and he wanted to chase it away, make her happy. He was like some romantic fool, and that disturbed him nearly as much as the closeness of Tamzin’s warm body.
Chapter Nine – Tamzin
Decon’, this was going to be a new experience, stripping down to her naked skin on an alien space station. Yep, she could safely say nothing in her life could have prepared her for how surreal that sounded.
“And I have to be naked?” she asked, wondering if it was some idea of an alien’s perverted joke.
“Yes. Especially since, in your case, those clothes are going to have to be incinerated.”
She looked down at the rags she was wearing. The rain had dried, but left small burn holes that would make the fabric fall apart over the next few days. Talk about contaminated, he was right.
“But what am I supposed to wear?” she asked. “Shall I go back and get a change of clothes from my pack?”
“No.” He shook his head and backed away from her. “While you strip, I’ll go and find something else for you to wear. There are spare overalls on the station.”
She should have felt happier about him leaving, but the thought of stripping, in a room with the door open, was a little too much. Puffing the air out of her cheeks, she slowly took off her jacket, which had kept out the worst of the rain. It was a good job she had chosen hard wearing over style, but the cuffs of her sweater had got wet, and her serviceable grey pants were pockmarked with holes, so she slipped them off too. Leaving her in her underwear. What could be wrong with keeping her bra and panties on?
She took a step towards the big chair situated in the centre of the room, her eyes casting over all the flashing lights on the control console, and a new nervousness covered her. Did she trust these aliens;